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5.17.2012

Strawberry Cake

After finals were over, I went home for about a week and a half. In that week and a half, I made three cakes. Three. One for my dad's birthday, one for Mother's Day with family at my grandparent's house, and one for my mom on Mother's Day. I'm going to write about the other two, but I wanted to share this one first.

The day before Mother's Day, my mom's side of the family went to my grandfather's and step-grandmother's house for lunch. I love family get-togethers like this because my aunt, uncle, and cousin come to visit. And this time my aunt brought her new dog that we'd heard so much about.

My new friend Rocky.

He's a golden retriever/poodle mix, but he mostly looks like a golden retriever. I love golden retrievers, but I'm not sure I could deal with a big dog. At least not a dog that's almost as tall as me when it stands on its hind legs.

Whenever we go to my grandparent's house in the spring or summer, we always walk around my step-grandmother's yard and look at all of her flowers. She's really into gardening and has hundreds and hundreds of flowers. I think there were thousands at one point.

I decided to make a strawberry cake for Mother's Day after my mom told me about a recipe my grandmother used to use. We went through her recipe box and found a strawberry cake recipe clipped out of a newspaper too. They were very similar and both recipes used a boxed white or yellow cake mix, so I decided to combine them and make a strawberry cake from scratch.

Add strawberries. You can chop them up, puree them in a food processor or blender, or whatever you like. I bought frozen sliced strawberries at Walmart. There isn't a blender or anything at my parent's house, so my mom kind of chopped/pureed them with a hand mixer. Whatever you decide, use one cup of strawberries.

Pour into prepared cake pans and bake for 25-30 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.

STRAWBERRY FROSTING

1/2 cup butter (1 stick), room temperature

1 box of powdered sugar (I used Domino's)

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 cup strawberries

In a medium bowl, cream butter.

Add powdered sugar 1 cup at a time and scraping the bowl after each time.

Add vanilla extract and strawberries. Again, you can chop up the strawberries however you like.

This frosting is not the kind you want to pipe. My mom told me my grandmother used to just pour it over the cake, it would run down the sides, and that's it. I spread it on with a rubber spatula and sure enough, it started sliding off the cake a little bit. I immediately put it in the fridge and everything was fine.

I decided to decorate my cake with whipped cream and sliced (not frozen) strawberries. They were HUGE, by the way. They were the biggest strawberries I have ever seen. And it wasn't just the one box I bought. They were all that big. I don't know if the farm they were grown on used a special kind of fertilizer or there was a leak of some kind that contaminated the strawberry field, but if I get super powers like Captain America or the Hulk, I'd be okay with that. (I saw The Avengers again last week.) No symptoms so far, though.

This cake is different from most of the cakes I've made so far. This is the first fruit based cake I've made, and I really enjoyed it. I'm a really picky eater, unfortunately. I don't like a lot of fruits or vegetables, and this might sound really weird or silly, but I think a lot of it has to do with textures. My mom is probably rolling her eyes right now, but seriously, I don't like the texture of most fruits and vegetables. I like a lot of fruity flavors though, like strawberry. So the good thing about this cake is that you can do whatever you want with the strawberries. I personally don't like chunks (unless they're chocolate), which I think has to do with textures, so I blended the strawberries. I'm back in T-town now, where I actually have a blender, so I'm going to use this recipe again soon.

I also hope using fruit in cakes will help me learn to like more fruits. Either that will happen, or I will use the fruits as an excuse to eat more cake. I am okay with either one.

After lunch at my grandparent's house, we went to my grandfather's old house and got a bunch of my grandmother's recipes. I made copies of all the ones I want to try, so I should be good on blog posts for awhile.

This cake was perfect for Mother's Day. Especially because my mom wanted me to make it, and because my mom's side of the family was able to celebrate my grandmother too.

Thanks, Aunt Jane! I have looked into photography courses at UA, but I think there is a prerequisite that has nothing to do with photography and I don't know if I want to take it. But I would love to take a photography course. I think it would really help!

Ditto on what Jana and Jane said. The cake was very moist which is always good, the icing was thick and tasty and I am afraid Beth that your dislike of fruit comes from me. I did eat the strawberry on my slice though. :) Super photography and I like the non-cake shots.

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